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We’re now 99.999% moved in. Besides the few condiments Chris left at his house (you know, the condiments we HAD to take from the old kitchen…sigh) and a box of books we forgot, everything is pretty much in place. There was also a bed fiasco which resulted in me having to drop a cool $260 for a new twin bed, box spring, and platform (grumble, grumble) and a horrible mess up with the internet service at Comcast (oh, someone is getting a new booty hole when I go in there!), but besides that were feeling good. I admit, the first night when I was on the dreaded old futon mattress on the floor, behind our living room chairs, looking up the ceiling, I felt incredibly anxious. That anxiety started to subside the next day, and now I’m truly falling in love with the apartment. It’s fun to creep out the window, our upstairs neighbors seem like nice guys (third time is a charm!), and free hot water + the washer and dryer combo is, as the college students say, pretty clutch.

Here are some photos of the place. When the living room is looking photo shoot ready—my bike is squashed rather unfortunately and precariously between the coffee table and wall—I’ll try to take a full on shot. In the mean time imagine this: you walk into the door. Straight ahead is a corner section that has 2 chairs, a futon couch against the wall, a coffee table in the center, and a liquor cabinet/side table (more on that!) in between the 2 chairs. On the backside of one of the chairs is my little sleeping area. As the break up initiator I thought it was only decent of me to leave Chris with the bedroom and humbly call the living room my bed space. It’s not that bad at all, seeing as our living room is pretty beastly. There is even a large open area where a bookshelf will go and where I can practice some yoga and even hold some private sessions. Pretty exciting!

My morning view! The other day was exceptionally grey, but normally the light streams in so beautifully. The sound of the passing cars drowns out most of the drunk passer-byers. Unlike our old place, people are generally hightailing it down to the bar and not congregating outside for 30 minutes. Honestly, can you tell how excited I am to never have to hear the majority of those people screaming again! Hallelujah!

A cool little tea light wall accent I got at Walmart. They don’t provide a huge amount of light, but they give a relaxing ambience to the living room.

Today both the internet and bed people were in the apartment. It was very convenient that just as the internet dudes were leaving the mattress boys were coming in. I won’t bother going into the full story about the internet fiasco—just know it involves me getting magically “upgraded” to a new package that cost $50 more without my consent—but Chris spent an hour on the phone with a Tech guy from Texas after I spent an hour calling the company back until I could get a competent aid. Word to the wise: if you feel like you’re being duped push back! I work at the Enrollment Service Office, so I knew that screaming wouldn’t help, but I started being a lot more firm when I felt like people were taking the easy way out on the phone. Assertiveness gets results!

My little decorating project, inspired by some intense Pinteresting. Obviously, I just found a bunch of frames and arranged them on the wall. I didn’t get all fancy with a leveler or anything, but I got pretty good at finding the softer spots in the wall to hammer into. My favorite part of this wall section is the wrought iron frame I got. The stand that would hold it up on a table wouldn’t come off, but I realized I could leave the frame upside-down and use it as mail holder. If Chris comes back and finds a bill for me in the mailbox he can stick it in there instead of on a table, which naturally becomes Clutter Island. Over time I’m hoping to add some more frames to the collection. Fingers crossed for my circular beauties!

I took the photos off my old wall and threw them out, but the record art is going to make a second appearance! Again, records are a cheap and easy way to take up wall space in your apartment.

Peep the duct tape job. Notttt the cutest, but it works to hold the curtains over during the daytime!

As seen above, I got this awesome three tier “thing” to hold all my jewelry for $1.75. It’s so cool! I feel so sumptuous, so Marie Antoinette! Now I no longer have all my things in three different jewelry boxes.

Earrings are going on the bottom.

The kitchen! It’s so sunny. We face the lake so we actually have sunlight all day, which is great from a food photography perspective. I don’t have to make all my dinner dishes during the daytime, in order to harness the power of natural light. Our kitchen countertops and sinks also don’t really allow for dish clutter, so it looks like we’ll never have those 1 hour dish cleaning sessions again. So far it seems to be a good thing!

I have enough counter space for all my appliances! I put the juicer next to the sink for easy, excuse free cleaning. And look, Woodchuck cider now comes in a can. How fun! Looks like I might have to shot gun one sometime. Hey, when you go gluten free and cannot find anything that isn’t in a glass bottle you don’t take simplicity, silence (no clink, clink, clink), and chin-drippin’ guzzling for granted *wink*

A nice hallway closet was a savior! No need to buy a bureau for the living room, phew.

Light show! I got some cute little jars to hold the tea lights. I even tried this thing I found on Pinterest. You fill a little bowl with coffee beans and put a tea light in the middle. The warmth from the light makes the coffee beans smell. Sadly, it doesn’t actually work, but it looks pretty darn cute! Maybe I need to grind them?

The most awesome fruit basket ever! I loved the fruit bowl at my old place, but I found it to be constantly over flowing. With the different levels I have more room for fruits and can keep certain items away from each other—apples release gases and can make other fruits ripen too quickly. This was a Goodwill purchase I was totally cheesing over.

Something Chris and I talked about wanting was a liquor cabinet. And then we looked online and saw that liquor cabinets can cost anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. And even the wire/wood rolling carts were pretty pricey. Thankfully, we found this unique cabinet at the Goodwill for $5.50. Chevron print has been all over the internet, so maybe next month I’ll give it a paint job. The sliding doors have a touch of decades past and we cannot wait to fill it with wine and booze. Come over, friends, if you want a well mixed drink.

I also found this pretty canister and some fake flowers to put in it. Faux-bouquets have really come a long way since the 90’s when people used clear dots of glue on rose petals to give the appearance of dew; shudder. The best part is I’ll never have to water them and they’ll never look dull.

Thanks for taking a look at my new place. I’m in absolute love, thus far. And now that I have the internet back you can expect usual posting for me! I’ve missed writing to ya’ll!